Titan A.E. (ENGLISH)

Titan A.E. (Graeme Revell). Sometimes, the release of a score album is not achieved in spite to have numerous factors to favor. And it is that, in case of Titan A.E., it did not seem to be sufficient on having a top composer (though not one the first row like Williams or Zimmer, but though acquaintance, since was Graeme Revell), for an ambitious enough animation movie, as well as for has released a good album of songs, which was leaving space on the disc to include a sufficiently illustrative portion of the score as to satisfy the followers to whom Revell's music was more interesting than the songs. And it is that, in spite of the fact that the release of the album was planned, the scanty success of the movie at the box office ended with this idea.

Many times, albums of songs have been released including one or two tracks of the score, but rarely there have been released hybrid albums which were including the songs and an ambitious part of the score beyond the main theme (as they could be examples like The Postman or The Matrix Reloaded). It seems that the record labels known very well that the fans that look for the songs included in the soundtrack of a movie is totally different from the one that looks for the score and, because of it, if they have to release an album and sacrifice the other one, the decision falls down always to the same side. We can understand that the songs have a higher potential public than the instrumental music created for the movie, but we do not understand that the official soundtrack album were totally done without it, even more if there are surplus minutes on the compact disk as to provide a generous sample, though not complete, of the score. The fan who buys the soundtrack of the movie use to accomplish with two requirements: first, and obvious, that he/she has liked the songs listened in the movie, principal motive for the one that buys the soundtrack; and second, that he/she has liked the movie, the necessary motive to decide to buy the album and for which the fan will never meet troublesome for finding a presentation of the tracks of the score accompanying to the songs for that he/she was looking for, even if that is music of the movie, which has liked the fan sufficiently as to buy the disc. This wants to say that, independently from the affinity of the buyer with the instrumental film music, the tracks of the score are never filling material.

The conclusion of the previous idea takes us to the logical consequence: the songs and the score must be released, first because both form a part of the movie soundtrack (and if the disc indicates that it contains "music from the motion picture", is it not the score parts from this music?); and second, to respect the fans interested in acquiring the score.

Again, the label specialized in this type of editions, La La Land Records, has had to appear to give justice and to release an edition that, though in a very limited form, at least it gives the opportunity of acquiring this score, 14 years later. It is a shame that these editions were born with so much delay, since the fan of this music use to have listened the score in a bootleg version that, throughout so many years, he/she has had surplus time to find, which reduces a bit the release power of this edition. A consequence of this situation is that these releases are limited, since only the possible buyers with a higher interest in the film music could be interested for an album that is released 14 years later than the movie. And it seems that the digital edition of all this content does not go with the policy of La La Land or other record labels specialized in this type of contents, which reduces its future diffusion.

The booklet that accompanies the score of Titan A.E. contains extensive information about the creation of the movie, as well as track by track comments that clarify the action that happens during each one, with brief comments on themes and instruments used by Revell.